Refutation of Kinder, Gentler Military by Stephanie Gutmann

One of the first glaring mistakes that Mrs. Gutmann makes involves the relaying of a conversation between a recruit and a drill sergeant. On pages 33 and 34, she reports that the recruit addressed the drill sergeant numerous times as “sir”. As anyone who has ever been through Army Basic Training can most certainly tell you, a drill sergeant is addressed only as “drill sergeant”. There are those that address them as sir on the first day of training, but that is the last day they will ever do it. Such a form of address is met immediately with corrective statements and physical measures. By the second day, no one would dare address them

Another glaring inaccuracy is present on pg 31 where she refers to many drill sergeants an “involuntarily assigned” to their training duty. This is patently false. Attendance of the drill sergeant training course to become a drill sergeant is completely voluntary. One cannot be forced into the duty, but specifically apply for it.

as sir, as that form of address is only appropriate for officers. I find it very hard to believe that a recruit would continue this behavior into the third and fourth week of training (in fact, if one can not show proper forms of address by the second week, they are recycled to the beginning of the training).

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